Is It Okay To Disable In-Floor Cleaning System?

[Pltybx]

I absolutely hate the in-floor cleaning system my pool has. I would much rather use an automatic cleaner. Is there any way I can disable this system entirely. I was told not to shut off the valve to the pop-up gears. Has anyone done this or have another solution? Even if I could just replace the heads with normal vents or something would be sufficient.

I NEED HELP!

Thanks.

[Pool Clown]

does the infloor run on its own pump? Or does it use water from the filter pump through valving?

[Pltybx]

It runs with the one pump. I just learned that the in floor system also acts as the return. I guess I could just remove the pop ups completely but that would just mean i have holes in my pool.

[Pool Clown]

You should have a return valve that will divert water either to the popups, or to the regular return in the pool. Does this pool have a spa? A picture of the valves at the equipment would help.

[Pltybx]

There is a valve at the pop ups and no regular return to the pool. There is a spa attached to the pool. I'll see about posting pics.

[Pool Clown]

You can contact experts for this trouble please don't waste your time on internet and contact ASAP.

He did contact experts.

Why don't you contact someone to teach you proper sentence structure?

"You can contact experts for this trouble.(period) Please don't waste your time on internet.(period) and Contact me ASAP."

[waterbear]

spammer from pakistan has been banned

[Pltybx]

So a pool guy told me to just keep the pop-ups valve at half open, this will allow for water to return and keep the pop-up heads low enough or some of them all the way down for the cleaner to roll over. Also to have the spa valve on to act as a return. So far it seems to have worked. If I could just remove the pop up heads and replace them with something that has a mesh over top to keep debris out but allow water to return to the pool, that would be stellar.

[Pool Clown]

I would take the water valve out of the housing. That way, you could probably leave that valve completely open instead of closing half way, and reducing your flow back to the pool.

[Pltybx]

I would take the water valve out of the housing. That way, you could probably leave that valve completely open instead of closing half way, and reducing your flow back to the pool.

Not quite sure what you mean by taking the water valve out of the housing.

Here is a link to pictures of my pool. https://plus.google.com/photos/117002266871087211000/albums/5740666681770262577

You'll notice how the wall between the spa and the pool is completely below the water level of the pool so I can't seem to understand how this spa is supposed to get any real heat.

[Pltybx]

One other thing. Does the bypass valve between the intake and out from the heater have to be completely shut off? The installer said it should be left open a bit to relieve some pressure.

[Pool Clown]

I would take the water valve out of the housing. That way, you could probably leave that valve completely open instead of closing half way, and reducing your flow back to the pool.

Not quite sure what you mean by taking the water valve out of the housing.

Here is a link to pictures of my pool. https://plus.google....666681770262577

You labeled the water valve in your picture. "Self cleaning pop up heads valve". Or maybe you were talking about the red handled valve. I'm referring to the, kinda yuck green, dome shaped, about 8 inches around, with a band clamp around it.

You'll notice how the wall between the spa and the pool is completely below the water level of the pool so I can't seem to understand how this spa is supposed to get any real heat.

You may have too much water in the pool, and has overflowed the dam. Generally, the water level should be in the middle, or half way up the tile, in the pool.

[PoolGuyNJ]

The water level appears ok and the spa wall is designed to be 1/2 way up the pool tile.

Unfortunately, this is an A&A floor cleaner and the distribution unit's (i.e the transmission) gears are built in to the top half of it. They can't be removed like on a Paramount brand.

All that can be done, as far as I know is top open the other valves on the return side to relieve water pressure on the A&A tranny, preventing the floors from getting enough water to pop up.

When in spa mode, a very small amount of cooler water from the pool will get in but it should not be enough to cause the spa to totally cool by any stretch unless the heater is way under powered. How many watts is that heater?

Scott

[Pltybx]

I believe it's a Spa-Pak heater model number 1102-2. 11.0 KwH

All that can be done, as far as I know is top open the other valves on the return side to relieve water pressure on the A&A tranny, preventing the floors from getting enough water to pop up.

And this is basically what I've been doing. I opened up the spa valve to have the jets going while the filter runs to act as a return and I then I turn the red pop up valve at about 45 degrees to keep the pressure low enough so the pop up heads don't go up all the way and the vac goes over them.

[Pltybx]

You labeled the water valve in your picture. "Self cleaning pop up heads valve". Or maybe you were talking about the red handled valve. I'm referring to the, kinda yuck green, dome shaped, about 8 inches around, with a band clamp around it.

The label was referring to the red handled valve. I see what you're talking about. The dome contains all the mechanics for the pop ups.

[Pool Clown]

Yea, i knew it wasn't a Paramount valve, but i thought i had gutted one of those once before. My bad.

[Pltybx]

No worries. This is just frustrating. It's like what's the point of the spa and heater if it's not even going to get hot. Pointless.

[dlcramer]

Hi, sorry for hijacking, but I have a similar problem.

Found this forum searching for the same thing. Disabling the in floor pop ups. The pool I have is over 30 years old and the last time they did a remodel they changed to magnaflow pop ups that I guess even if the system was working correct, they are not big enough to do the job. There are only 7 of them spaced 12 or more feet apart and none of the steps. But that was IF it was working correctly. Its now. The gear mechinism is either broke or was pemanently disabled. 3 of the pop ups, one at the shallow end and 2 at the deep end (24000 gallon diving pool) all pop up every time and never rotate.

I got quotes to fix what I have and every company had the same comment that the current system is fubar.

So I am going to a pool shark pool cleaner. There are no returns other than the pop ups, but I have been told that the system will walk right over the 3 that are work. I was hoping I could pop em out, remove the guts and maybe even drill a hole or series of holes in the top of them for flow. If I can do that, I don't see why I wouldnt be able to lock them in the down position as long as water can flow thru. I don't want to just pop them out and have large holes that can collect debri. But it sounds as if I will have the same problem as the original poster of not having pop ups that are easily "fixed".

Sorry for the long post. This is my first pool.

[Pltybx]

I feel your pain. If I had to do it over again, I would probably go with a different cleaner than my Hayward. I'm not familiar with the shark so I can't tell you if that will go over the pop ups or not. My Hayward has the suction hole that is the perfect diameter of the pop ups and ends up getting stuck on the pop up head.

I was told to just remove the pop ups but I'm thinking I would like to leave them in there to prevent larger debris from falling into the pipes. My solution will be to remove the pop up heads and drill holes in the top to relieve the water pressure that would otherwise make them rise. I just have to get the tool to remove them.

[dlcramer]

Well, I made the switch last week and so far I am VERY happy. The sand shark has a square opening that is bigger than my pop ups but it walks over them just fine. It is not a bladder type, and has gears so friends are telling me that it will become a hassel (but no where as many moving parts as I hear the Haywards have tho and it came with a 2 year parts warrenty). I had a bunch of work done at the pump itself and part of going to this cleaner was gutting the gear box for the pop ups. All 7 of them pop up now but only 1/2 an inch or so and they all reseat when the pump shuts off. I have gone from cleaning by hand every 2 to 3 days to only brushing the steps and sides weekly. I was hoping to get a fix that would get me a year or 2 to save up for a pool redo and I think I found it.

I was ready to do what you are thinking about tool Bought the tool to pop them out and drill holes. May be needed in the future but for now it seems to not be needed. Dunno if all yours are poping up or not, but becasue 4 of mine were not before, the amount of junk that spewed out when they finally did was pretty sad. Been testing the pool more right now just in case it was algae.

[Pltybx]

Congrats on the solution. I may have to look at the Pool Sand Shark if it continues to work for you. Not all of my pop ups are working but I'm not terribly worried about that.

Let me ask you this, do your pop ups also act as the return to the pool or do you have a separate return to where you could shut the pop ups off and just use the shark?

[dlcramer]

The pop ups are the only return for my pool. To get them all to "work" at the same time we had to pull all the guts out of the timing mechinism by the filter. After doing that, they all pop up at the same time and not as high as if they should normally which I think is a good thing for the vacuum. It just walks over them. Because they all are sharing the load on the return it doesnt take much pressure to push one down. The cleaner I got has a rectangular opening on the bottom for suction with radii on the leading and trailing sides of it which I think are helping it walk right over them. If it hits one and is not even close to center, it sometimes just walks around it.

And the pool is the cleanest it has ever been since we bought the house in September.

[Pltybx]

That's great to hear. Maybe I'll try that first before drilling. Thanks.

[myoldpool]

This is a great thread and I wanted to comment now that I'm in the middle of solving a similar problem- finally.

We have a 30 year old pool with 14 in-floor heads in various states of decay. About 10 years ago the previous homeowner hired a hack crew to convert their system to a Polaris. Instead of doing it the right way with a booster, they just screwed a Polaris 360 connector into one of the three wall returns and sawed-off and capped the old distribution controller lines. This took the almost 40K/gal pool to only 3 returns, which they further constrained with smaller outlets to boost the pressure to 20+ psi for the non-boosted Polaris. it's been a nightmare to keep clean for the last 5 years. Oh, and it's 1/2 under a canopy of Central Texas live oaks and is regularly bombarded with thick yellow-green pollen.

The original plaster is finally being replaced this year and I'm restoring the pool, not by repairing the in-floor cleaner, but redesigning it. I'm running a new cleaner line with a booster pump and a Polaris 280, through a new dedicated wall fitting, and installing the original aperture outlets. Finally it will again have 3 normal wall outlets. Since the plaster is being redone I'm also capping and covering the majority of the crusty pop-ups, but as a bonus I'm converting 4-5 of them to flush floor returns. The result will be a greatly improved turnover rate, consistent automatic cleaner operation, lower chemical requirements (new plaster and better turnover), and a smooth pool bottom with no rusty pop-up heads.

I've had to wait and save-up for 5 years, and without the timing of the re-plaster there's no way it could be done the way it should be done. Anyway, I've been reading this forum forever and wanted to share the details of my five year old dream, finally coming to reality. I've been sharing everyone's pain on this for a long time.

[Pool Clown]

You should post pictures of your remodel.